Sony Vaio VGC-JS1E/S Desktop PC Review
VAIO VGC-JS1E/S - 20.1 inch Desktop Computer from Sony
Power, performance, and elegance are the core qualities of Sony VGC-JS1E/S desktop PC.
Look wise the system owes a lot to Mac, whereas in power, the system is often compared with HP all-in-one desktop PCs. But when digging into the technical specification of Sony VGC-JS1E you will find that the system is actually ahead of other all-in-ones available in the market.
Being powered by 500GB hard drive, Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 processor running on 2.53GHz, this desktop will undoubtedly exceed your expectation in terms of performance, even when you are working on memory consuming tasks like creating home videos, editing photos, and so on. Having ample storage space the system will easily fit in all your files including your audio and video files, thus allowing you to manage all your work from a single location.
Coupled with power you will also get elegant and stylish looking PC unit that very well blends with the modern-day decor of any living room. Being a light weight (only 8.5kg) you can easily move around the desktop from one room to the other without much hassle.
If you are a home user looking for some power in everyday computing this system is a worthy choice.
Design
Thin lines, smooth finish, and round borders characterise Sony Vaio VGC-JS1E/S Desktop Computer. The design is very much similar to Mac’s all-in-ones systems including its gorgeous brushed metal finish body. The sleek 20.1-inch LCD monitor having 1,680 x 1,050 resolutions offers sharp and bright colours.
The design of the monitor is more like a digital picture frame. It stands on a handle-like ridge which acts as a support base for the monitor and at the rear end you will find a single adjustable rear arm that you can slide forward and backward to adjust the angle of the screen. At the borderline of the monitor you will find wireless hard drive. The 1.3-megapixel ‘Motion Eye’ webcam and dual-microphone are located above the screen. The ventilation slot is integrated with a power button and it is located right above the power indicator whereas the DVD-writer is located at the right hand side.
Two USB ports including 3.5mm microphone, headphone, and line-out jacks are situated at the left side of the screen.
Sony’s MagicGate and SD memory card slots are also tucked in at the left hand side of the unit; giving a system a clean look.
At the rear side of the system you will see more USB ports: a mini-FireWire port, power and Ethernet sockets, five USB ports, an optical S/PDIF, on/off switch for the WiFi (802.11b/g/Draft-n), three audio ports enabling Realtek audio card to connect to home theater system and finally Gigabit Ethernet LAN port.
The stylish matching optical mouse further enhances the look of this All-in-one desktop PC. The smooth silvery finish body matches with the system colour. But its tiny stature makes it difficult to use even with average-sized hand. Unfortunately the mouse is wired and so is the keyboard. But the floating mouse-wheel is quite convenient to scroll the mouse in any direction.
The slim, silvery grayish, sleek finish keyboard matches with the graceful base unit. The isolated style keys allows swift click but have little slippery feel of the keys on the keyboard. The function keys, shortcut keys, volume and brightness controls are integrated into one unit and located at the left side of the keyboard unit. You can also perform functionalities such as zoom in and zoom out the screen, optical disc eject, altering the speaker volume from the keyboard.
Inside the PC
The system is equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 processor which runs at 2.53GHz and built on Intel’s G45 Express chipset architecture using Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology. The power of the system is further strengthened by 500GB hard drive, 3072KB L2 Cache memory, 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM (1×2048MB, 1×1024MB) which runs at 800MHz memory speed.
The internal configuration of the system also includes X4500HD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator running on 1330 MB graphics memory. The memory stick slot comprises of standard Memory Stick, Memory StickDuo, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick PRO Duo, MagicGate and high speed data transfer compatible slots.
The system also has in-built Wireless LAN capabilities comprising of 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T Ethernet network interface supporting 100m Wireless LAN range.
Considering its configuration the system is well-equipped to run 32-bit version of Windows Vista Premium operating system.
But the major disadvantage of this system is the unavailability of Blu-ray drive which makes it difficult to run any gaming software.
Features
The best part of this system is its elegant finish LCD monitor which offers vivid colours and rich contrast where all the colour gradients blends smoothly with each other, thus displaying superb picture quality. The 20-inch monitor is built using ‘Four LAMP’ technology houses the entire CPU, making the system really light-weight. Having 1680 x 1020 pixels resolution the monitor will undoubtedly offer rich and vibrant colours and brilliant contrast. But glossy coating on the screen does interfere by reflecting lightings above the screen.
This Sony Vaio Desktop Computer system is also bundled with 1.3 megapixel webcam and dual microphones enabling great video and audio streaming even when you are working online.
The speaker has built-in Dolby’s Home Theatre virtual surround sound system offering great movie experience.
Due to its storage feature you can install any memory consuming software, but the system does comes with loads of preinstalled software from Sony including VAIO Music Box, Windows Media Player 11, SonicStage Mastering Studio 2.5 for running and editing your audio files, VAIO Content Importer / Exporter, WinDVD 8 for VAIO, DivX Player and Converter, VAIO Movie Story for enriching your TV and Video experience. For photo editing you have software like Picture Motion Browser, VAIO Movie Story. You can easily burn your CDs and DVDs using Easy Media creator 10, Click to Disc/Editor. For Media Center experience the system has VAIO Media Plus preinstalled. The system also comes with wide range of office application including Adobe Reader 8.1, Microsoft Office Trial 2007 (60 days Trial version). The bundle of security and recovery products include McAfee Internet Security Suite (with 60 days free virus updates), VAIO Recovery Utility 2.6 - HDD recovery (hidden partition), and Google software package.
You will also be entitled to 12 months guarantee when buying this product.
Performance
Consistent performance, speed and agility are the keywords for Sony Vaio VGC-JS1E/S desktop PC.
Ample storage will easily fit in any application software; even Windows Vista performs just right on this power house desktop. The system also does all your work quietly and efficiently without throwing any problem.
One thing may irk you about this system is its gaming and graphic feature. Devoid of Blu-ray drive this system is not recommended for gaming software. It will fail to deliver the clarity you expect when working on your gaming products.
Intel’s integrated X4500HD graphics also struggles with Blu-ray decoding. Without blu-ray feature you are also limited to watching standard DVDs.
Speakers work perfect with low volumes but if you increase the bass too much; it tends to distort the sound quality and often breaks the sound.
If the above problems does not bother you and if you are purely a home user who needs a system to run high level enterprise software or just needs a PC which does the day to day administrative tasks, this is a perfect all-in-one device you can have compare to other all-in-ones available in the market.
Sony Vaio VGC-JS1E/S Desktop PC - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Sony |
| Model Name | VGC-JS1E/S |
| Colour/Finish | Silver Grey |
| Display | LCD |
| Display screen size | 20.1 inches |
| Dimensions ( H x W x D) | 408 x 487 x 157 mm |
| Hard drive Capacity | Up to 500GB |
| Optical drive | DVD-RW (+R double layer) |
| Graphics hardware | Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with 1330MB Graphics Memory |
| Memory | Installed RAM: 3GB expandable up to 4GB with DDR2-800 SDRAM with 800 MHz memory speed |
| Processor | Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E7200 with Dual-Core Technology |
| Processor speed | 2.53 GHz |
| Audio | Sound card integrated |
| Operating system | Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1 |
| Mouse | USB Optical Mouse |
| Keyboard | Function Keyboard (Standby, Zoom, Disc Eject & more) |
| I/O ports | 5 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A / 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - 4 PIN FireWire / 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm / 2 x microphone - input - mini-phone 3.5mm / 1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45 / 1 x audio - SPDIF output |
| Software | Windows Media Player 11 SonicStage Mastering Studio 2.5 VAIO Music Box VAIO Movie Story VAIO Content Importer / Exporter WinDVD 8 for VAIO DivX Player & Converter VAIO Movie Story Click to Disc/Editor VAIO Media Plus Picture Motion Browser Easy Media creator 10 Click to Disc/Editor Adobe® Reader® 8.1 Microsoft® Office Trial 2007 (60 days Try & Buy) McAfee® Internet Security Suite (with 60 days free virus updates) VAIO Recovery Utility 2.6 - HDD recovery (hidden partition) Google software package |
| Guarantee | 12 Months |
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